The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-07-29

put, IcutuIA uSuia, usssV WV sS'es~S.-
discourse Of the future will be short.
Condensation il demanded by the age In
which we live. No more need OF long
introductions and long applications, and
30 many divisions to q discourse that 1t
may be said to be hydraheaded. In other
days men got all their information from
the pulpit. There were few books and
there were no newspapers, and there was
little travel from place to place, and peo-
ple would sit and listen two and half
hours to a religious discourse, and "sev-
enteenthly'' would find them fresh and
clipper. In those days there was enough
time for man to take an hour to warm
himself up to the subject and an hour to
cool off. But what was necessity then
is superfluity now. Congregations are
full of knowledge from books, from
newspapers, from rapid and contin-
uous ntercommunication, and long
disquisitions of what they know al
ready will not be abided. If religious
teacher cannot compress what he wishes
to say to the people in the space of
forty-flve minutes, better adjourn it to
some other day.
The trouble is we preach audiences
into Christian frame, and then we
preach them out of it. We forget that
every auditor has SO much capacity OF
attention, and when that is exhausted he
is restless. That accident on the Long
Island railroad some years ago came from
the fact that the brakes were out OF
order, and when they wanted to stop the
train they could not stop, and hence the
casualty was terrific. In all religious
discourse we want locomotive power and
propulsion. We want at the same time
stout breaks to let down at the right in
slant. 1t is dismal thing after hearer
has comprehended the whole subject to
hear man say: "Now to recapitulate,
and ga few words by way of applica-
tion," and "once more" and "finally,"
and snow to conclude"
Paul preached until midnight, and
Eutychus got sound asleep and fell out of
window and broke his neck. Some
would say: "Good for him." I would
rather be sympathetic like Paul and re-
suscitate him. That accident is often
quoted now in religious circles as warn
ing against somnolence in church. 1t is
just as much q warning to ministers
against prolixity. Eutychus was wrong
in his somnolence, but Paul made mis-
take when he kept on until midnight.
He ought to have stopped at II o'clock,
and there would have been no accident.
If Paul might have gone on to too great
length, let all those Of us who are now
preaching the Gospel remember that there
is limit to religious discourse, or ought
to be, and that in our time we have no
apostolic power of miracles.
Napoleon in an address of seven min
utes thrilled his army, and thrilled Eu-
rope. Christ's sermon on the mount, the
model sermon, was less than eighteen
minutes long at ordinary rate of delivery.
It is not electricity scattered over the sky
that strikes, but electricity gathered into
q thunderbolt and hurled, and it is not
religious truth scattered over. spread out
over vast reach of time, but religious
truth projected in compact form that
flashes light upon the soul and rives its
indifference.
When the religious discourse of the
future arrives in this land and in the
Christian church, the discourse which is
to arouse tho world and startle the ma
usher in the kinglont It WHY
be brief discourse. Hear it, all theolog-
ical students, all We just entering upon
religious work, all We men and women
who in Sabbath schools and other de-
partments are toiling for Christ and the
of immortals. Brevity! brew
ity!
But remark also that the religious
discourse of the future Of which speak
will be a popular discourse. There are
those in these times who speak of o popu-
lar sermon as though there must be
wrong about it. AS these
critics are dull themselves the world gets
the impression that the sermon is good
in proportion as it is stupid. Christ was
the most popular preacher the world ever
saw, and considering the small number
of the worlds population had the largest
audiences ever gathered. He never
preached anywhere without making
great sensation. People rushed out in
the wilderness to hear him, reckless of
their physical necessities. So great was
their anxiety to hear Christ that, taking
no food with them, they would have
tainted and starved had not Christ per-
formed miracle and fed them.
Why did SO many people take the truth
at Christ's hands? Because they all un-
derstood it. He illustrated his subject
BY hen and her chickens, by bushel
measure, by handful of salt, by birds
fight and by lily's aroma. All the
people knew what he meant and they
locked to him. And when the religious
discourse Of the future appears, it will
not be Princetonian, not Rochesterian,
not Andoverian, not Middletonian, but
plain, practical, unique, earn
est, comprehensive of p all the woes,
wants, sins, sorrows and necessities of an
auditory.
But when that exhortation or discourse
Ices come there will be a thousand
cleaning scimetars to charge on it.
There are in so many theological semina-
les professors telling young men how to
reach, themselves not knowing how,
md 1 am told that If q young man in
ome of our theological seminaries says
lnything quaint or thrilling or unique,
aculty and students fly at him and set
linn right, and straighten him out, and
mooth him down, and chop him off,
Until he says everything just as every